Cross-National Data

Errata Notice: On May 8, 2015 the ARDA added ISO country codes to many of our cross-national files to assist users merging the files with other data sources. We recently discovered that two ISP variables had incorrect values for three nations. We corrected these two variables on November 2, 2017. Read More

This file assembles data from the United Nations Human Development Reports (HDR) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook. It includes data on economic, social and demographic variables for 316 countries, nations and regions around the world. This is an attempt to draw together numerous variables employed in cross-national research.

This file assembles data from the 2010 United Nations Human Development Report (HDR), the 2011 edition of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) World Factbook and ARDA researchers' coding of the 2008 US Department of State International Religious Freedom (IRF) report. It includes data on economic, social and demographic variables for 252 countries and nations around the world. This is an attempt to draw together numerous variables employed in cross-national research.

This file assembles data from multiple sources, but many of the measures are from the ARDA's coding of the 2003 US State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 195 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for a list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. Additional data on religious regulation and favoritism in the smaller countries not covered by the State Department Reports were provided by researchers at the World Christian Database. In addition, this project assembled (with permission) other cross-national measures of interest to researchers on religion, economics, and politics. They include adherent information from the World Christian Database, scales from Freedom House and the Heritage Foundation, and various socio-economic measures from the United Nations. Measures for religious persecution (AESTIMA) and ethnic identity (DETHNIC) were added to this file in August 2007.

(Note: This dataset was previously available for download under the title "Cross-National Data: Religion Indexes, Religious Adherents, and Other Data.")

This file assembles data from multiple sources on 250 countries and territories, and also aggregates this data globally and by 22 world regions. The file presents most of the data available on the ARDA National Profiles as of August 2011 in a single downloadable dataset. Many of the measures are from the ARDA's coding of the 2008 US State Department's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Reports. This coding produced data on 198 different countries and territories (see the Summary file for the International Religious Freedom Data, 2008 for a list of countries coded, available for download from the ARDA), but excluded the United States. In addition, this project assembled (with permission) other cross-national measures of interest to researchers on religion, economics, and politics. They include adherent information from the World Christian Database, scales from Freedom House, the Religion and State Project, the Polity IV Project, the Heritage Foundation, the Correlates of War Project, and the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, and various socio-economic measures from the United Nations and the CIA's World Factbook. The source of each variable in this dataset is acknowledged in the variable's description, except in the case of those variables generated by ARDA researchers' coding of the Department of State's IRF Reports.

In December 2009, Pew Research Center released "Global Restrictions on Religion," the first in a series of annual reports on a data-coding project that seeks to measure levels of government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion around the world. As of February 2015, Pew Research had published six reports on global restrictions on religion, analyzing a total of seven years' worth of data (the first two reports covered a total of three years, from 2007 to 2009). [...] In order to provide social science researchers and the general public with easier access to the data, Pew Research Center has released the full dataset.

The data are presented as a long-format dataset, in which each row is a country-year observation (for example, "Afghanistan, 2007"). The columns contain all of the variables presented in Pew Research Center's annual reports on restrictions on religion, as well as some additional variables analyzed in separate studies. The dataset contains data from 2007 through 2013; as additional years of data are coded, the dataset will be updated.

The codebook proceeds in three parts. First, it explains the methodology and coding procedures used to collect the data. Second it discusses the Government Restrictions Index and Social Hostilities Index, including what they measure and how they are calculated. Finally, it describes each of the variables included in the dataset, along with answer values and definitions of key terms.

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2001 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2003 and 2005. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models.

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2003 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2001 and 2005. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models.

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2005 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2001 and 2003. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models.

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2008 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 198 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but it excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion Index (GRI), Modified Social Regulation of Religion Index (MSRI), and Government Favoritism of Religion Index (GFI) (see Grim & Finke, 2006 for information on the GRI and GFI).

This file contains aggregate measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2001, 2003, and 2005 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). Data in this file represent mean coding responses for each variable from all three years of coding.

This file contains aggregate measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2003, 2005, and 2008 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 199 countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: the Government Regulation of Religion Index (GRI), the Government Favoritism of Religion Index (GFI), and the Modified Social Regulation of Religion Index (MSRI) [see Grim and Finke (2006) for more information on the GRI and GFI, and see below for more information on the MSRI]. Data in this file represent mean coding responses for three of each variable from all three years of coding unless otherwise noted. Many countries have scores on variables that are expressed as decimals, and which do not correspond with a value label in the variables' descriptions. These decimal values signify that a country's scores on these variables vary over the 2003, 2005 and 2008 Reports.

This Religion and State-Minorities (RASM) dataset is supplemental to the Religion and State round 2 (RAS2) dataset. It codes the RAS religious discrimination variable using the minority as the unit of analysis (RAS2 uses a country as the unit of analysis and, is a general measure of all discrimination in the country). RASM codes religious discrimination by governments against all 566 minorities in 175 countries which make a minimum population cut off. Any religious minority which is at least 0.25 percent of the population or has a population of at least 500,000 (in countries with populations of 200 million or more) are included. The dataset also includes all Christian minorities in Muslim countries and all Muslim minorities in Christian countries for a total of 597 minorities. The data cover 1990 to 2008 with yearly codings.

These religious discrimination variables are designed to examine restrictions the government places on the practice of religion by minority religious groups. It is important to clarify two points. First, these variables focus on restrictions on minority religions. Restrictions that apply to all religions are not coded in this set of variables. This is because the act of restricting or regulating the religious practices of minorities is qualitatively different from restricting or regulating all religions. Second, this set of variables focuses only on restrictions of the practice of religion itself or on religious institutions and does not include other types of restrictions on religious minorities. The reasoning behind this is that there is much more likely to be a religious motivation for restrictions on the practice of religion than there is for political, economic, or cultural restrictions on a religious minority. These secular types of restrictions, while potentially motivated by religion, also can be due to other reasons. That political, economic, and cultural restrictions are often placed on ethnic minorities who share the same religion and the majority group in their state is proof of this.

This set of variables is essentially a list of specific types of religious restrictions which a government may place on some or all minority religions. These variables are identical to those included in the RAS2 dataset, save that one is not included because it focuses on foreign missionaries and this set of variables focuses on minorities living in the country. Each of the items in this category is coded on the following scale:

0. The activity is not restricted or the government does not engage in this practice.1. The activity is restricted slightly or sporadically or the government engages in a mild form of this practice or a severe form sporadically.2. The activity is significantly restricted or the government engages in this activity often and on a large scale.

A composite version combining the variables to create a measure of religious discrimination against minority religions which ranges from 0 to 48 also is included.

ARDA Note: This file was revised on October 6, 2017. At the PIs request, we removed the variable reporting on the minority's percentage of a country's population after finding inconsistencies with the reported values. For detailed data on religious demographics, see the Religious Characteristics of States Dataset Project.

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. This dataset examines constitutional clauses that address religion for 169 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2002. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states.

The Religion and State (RAS) project is based at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. This dataset examines constitutional clauses that address religion for 177 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2008. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as Western democracies with smaller populations.

The RCS-Dem dataset reports estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It covers 220 independent states, 26 selected substate entities, and 41 geographically separated dependencies, for every year from 2015 back to 1900 and often 1800 (more than 42,000 state-years). It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivisions within Christianity and Islam, along with several complex categories such as "Western Christianity." RCS is designed for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles.

The RCS-Dem dataset reports estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It covers 220 independent states, 26 selected substate entities, and 41 geographically separated dependencies, for every year from 2015 back to 1900 and often 1800 (more than 42,000 state-years). It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivisions within Christianity and Islam, along with several complex categories such as "Western Christianity." RCS is designed for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles.

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. The RAS dataset measures the extent of government involvement in religion (GIR), or the lack thereof, for 175 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2002. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states.

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. The RAS dataset measures the extent of government involvement in religion (GIR), or the lack thereof, for 175 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2008. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states.

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided.

The project was developed in three stages. The first stage consisted of the formation of a religion tree. A religion tree is a systematic classification of major religions and of religious families within those major religions. To develop the religion tree we prepared a comprehensive literature review, the aim of which was (i) to define a religion, (ii) to find tangible indicators of a given religion of religious families within a major religion, and (iii) to identify existing efforts at classifying world religions. (Please see the original survey instrument to view the structure of the religion tree.) The second stage consisted of the identification of major data sources of religious adherence and the collection of data from these sources according to the religion tree classification. This created a dataset that included multiple records for some states for a given point in time. It also contained multiple missing data for specific states, specific time periods and specific religions. The third stage consisted of cleaning the data, reconciling discrepancies of information from different sources and imputing data for the missing cases.

The Global Religion Dataset: This dataset uses a religion-by-five-year unit. It aggregates the number of adherents of a given religion and religious group globally by five-year periods.

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided.

The project was developed in three stages. The first stage consisted of the formation of a religion tree. A religion tree is a systematic classification of major religions and of religious families within those major religions. To develop the religion tree we prepared a comprehensive literature review, the aim of which was (i) to define a religion, (ii) to find tangible indicators of a given religion of religious families within a major religion, and (iii) to identify existing efforts at classifying world religions. (Please see the original survey instrument to view the structure of the religion tree.) The second stage consisted of the identification of major data sources of religious adherence and the collection of data from these sources according to the religion tree classification. This created a dataset that included multiple records for some states for a given point in time. It also contained multiple missing data for specific states, specific time periods and specific religions. The third stage consisted of cleaning the data, reconciling discrepancies of information from different sources and imputing data for the missing cases.

The National Religion Dataset: The observation in this dataset is a state-five-year unit. This dataset provides information regarding the number of adherents by religions, as well as the percentage of the state's population practicing a given religion.

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided.

The project was developed in three stages. The first stage consisted of the formation of a religion tree. A religion tree is a systematic classification of major religions and of religious families within those major religions. To develop the religion tree we prepared a comprehensive literature review, the aim of which was (i) to define a religion, (ii) to find tangible indicators of a given religion of religious families within a major religion, and (iii) to identify existing efforts at classifying world religions. (Please see the original survey instrument to view the structure of the religion tree.) The second stage consisted of the identification of major data sources of religious adherence and the collection of data from these sources according to the religion tree classification. This created a dataset that included multiple records for some states for a given point in time. It also contained multiple missing data for specific states, specific time periods and specific religions. The third stage consisted of cleaning the data, reconciling discrepancies of information from different sources and imputing data for the missing cases.

The Regional Religion Dataset: The unit of analysis is the region, measured at five-year intervals. The Correlates of War regional breakdown is used with one modification: the Oceania category is added for Correlates of War nation numbers 900 and above.

This file provides summary or aggregated measures for the 82 societies participating in the first four waves of the World Value Surveys. Thus, the society, rather than the individuals surveyed, are the unit of analysis.

"The World Values Survey is a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change. It is conducted by a network of social scientists at leading universities all around world.

Interviews have been carried out with nationally representative samples of the publics of more than 80 societies on all six inhabited continents. A total of four waves have been carried out since 1981 making it possible to carry out reliable global cross-cultural analyses and analysis of changes over time. The World Values Survey has produced evidence of gradual but pervasive changes in what people want out of life. Moreover, the survey shows that the basic direction of these changes is, to some extent, predictable.

This project is being carried out by an international network of social scientists, with local funding for each survey (though in some cases, it has been possible to raise supplementary funds from outside sources). In exchange for providing the data from interviews with a representative national sample of at least 1,000 people in their own society, each participating group gets immediate access to the data from all of the other participating societies. Thus, they are able to compare the basic values and beliefs of the people of their own society with those of more than 60 other societies. In addition, they are invited to international meetings at which they can compare findings and interpretations with other members of the WVS network."